Rumblings surrounding Maggette-to-Denver are surfacing again, this time for J.R. Smith, who torched the Clips last night. Baylor seems willing to stand pat unless he gets full value for Corey, which this proposal clearly doesn't offer. Why would the Clippers trade a freaky, athletic slasher who can get hot behind the arc but who's turnover-prone and can't rotate for shit for...uh...a freaky athlete who can slash, get hot from three but turns the ball over too much and is a cipher on defense?

According to Ron Artest, Elton Brand is one of the three best rappers in the NBA. Listen to the Artest interview with AOL Sportsbloggers Live here. [Hat tip: Henry Abbott]

Reports out of PHX are that Leandro Barbosa may be replacing Boris Diaw in the starting lineup, which would mean a Nash-Barbosa-Diaw-Bell-Marion-Thomas starting five. It's interesting to think about how that would color Saturday night's matchup. It would certainly make life more difficult for Sam Cassell. I still insist that the best way to neutralize PHX's rabbits is to have a shot blocking presence in the paint. If the Suns go with Barbosa, it may be the night to start Corey alongside Q to provide a little more speed in the defensive transition. Though Corey can't rotate in the half-court, he's very effective in getting back in transition - particularly if he's hanging out on the perimeter on the offensive end.

Posted Wednesday, October 29 at 3:20PM

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Comments

did you mean Barbosa instead of Diaw in the starting lineup. confused
i agree, the best way to beat Phoenix is to wear them down, like a football team running the ball down the other team's throats. Feed Brand and Kaman the ball again and again, that will free up open shots around the perimeter.

As for Mags, last night I thought we looked 100% stronger on offense when he was on the floor. Especially since we abandoned the EB option. I wouldn't mind seeing him start against PHX at all. But we MUST use EB against PHX. Somebody else made a good point: If the Lakers' bigs can beat the Suns in the paint, why don't we just use our far superior bigs?!

Todd: Far better with Mags on the floor... During the first half of last night's game, TT came off the bench "first" and we were still seriously struggling. Then, I thought to myself for a moment, could we be THIS bad without Mags coming off the bench "first"? Could we actually "need" Mags as bad as it seemed?

Hmm... Mags has a much better stats than TT per 48 mins (basketball-reference.com). Mags is even more efficient than TT. He only loses by .24 and .32 in stls and blks. More interesting though, is that Mags takes 2 less threes/48 mins, but only makes .89 less threes/48 mins, while managing to score 4.17 more than TT.

I didn't believe there was any validity in the Smith-Maggette rumours in the summer, and I don't believe it now. Funny thing is, Maggette is not a particularly good fit for Denver anyway (they need shooters to spread the floor, but Maggette is NOT that)... there's not way Elgin would consider this trade, and I'm not even sure why Denver would want to do it.

Yeah, we can't trade Maggette for this kid. Maggette is bigger, stronger, and will be a killer like he was in the playoffs. Smith isn't a good enough shooter to give up all that. Plus Smith would be bad for team chemistry: he was whining all night in the Thursday game.